Welcome back to another dose of DC reviews. An old friend makes an appearance in Batman Beyond, Two-Face is left to face the consequences of his decisions, and plot thickens in Brightest Day.
Minor spoilers ahead
Batman Beyond #3
Writer: Adam Beechen
Artist(s): Ryan Benjamin and John Stanisci
Cover Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Publisher: DC
The action starts immediately in this issue as Terry fights the bandaged villain in an attempt to save the Calendar Man. However, the masked villain is able to distract Terry enough to escape and kill Calendar Man as well. As his personal life demands more and more attention, Terry’s role as Batman faces a new challenge. Questioning Terry’s dedication to the job, Bruce Wayne decides to create Bat-Wraiths, which look very much like the Bat-Knights from Kingdom Come. Outraged at Bruce’s lack of faith in him, Terry sets out to stop the disguised villain. After stopping by Tim Drake’s home to make sure the Joker wasn’t rearing his head again, Tim directs Terry towards the original Boy Wonder.
Overall, I thought that this was the best issue yet. There was a nice bit of character development as well as a great depiction of Bruce and Terry’s relationship. The art is pretty much the same as it has been, although the characters not in costume were ugly. It was a great read and I’m more than stoked that Dick Grayson has finally appeared. 4/5
Batman: Streets of Gotham #15
Writer: Ivan Brandon
Artist(s): Ramon Bachs and John Lucas
Cover Artist: Dustin Nguyen
Publisher: DC
The last issue launched the start of the House of Hush arc, so imagine my surprise when this issue was a continuation of the second feature instead. The second feature ended with Two-Face evading the FBI and taking their undercover agent with him. This issue picks right up with Two-Face and a couple of his goons terrorizing the citizens of Gotham and avoiding Gotham PD again. They take the agent to a doctor’s house and threaten the doctor’s wife in order to get the doctor to fix the dying agent. Unfortunately, the agent dies. Two-Face throws what can only be described as a temper tantrum, and is only silenced when his two goons turn on him, for being cruel to them. After being stabbed multiple times, Two-Face is dumped into a river.
This wasn’t exactly a bad issue, the art was quite nice, my only problem with it was that not enough happened. It isn’t as if the plot was terrible, but rather I feel it would have been better if this story had remained a second feature. The pacing felt slow and repetitive, and ultimately very little was accomplished, other than Two-Face’s stabbing. 3/5
Brightest Day #7
Writer(s): Geoff Johns and Peter J. Tomasi
Artist(s): Ivan Reis, Patrick Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Vicente Cifuentes, Rebecca Buchman, and Mark Irwin
Cover Artist: David Finch, Scott Williams, and Peter Steigerwald
Publisher: DC
The last installment of Brightest Day left us with the resurrected individuals learning their new purpose in life. Other than a couple of pages on Boston Brand, where he decided to find Hal Jordan, this issue focused on Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter. Tonrarr, a native of Hawkworld, gave Hawkman a brief history on the land that they are currently inhabiting. While Hawkgirl battled some alien creatures, fought Hath-Set, and revealed that her mother was the mastermind villain. Meanwhile, M’gann informed Martian Manhunter that she was attacked by a green Martian, to which he insisted she was wrong. To prove him wrong, M’gann molded their minds through telepathy to reveal the treacherous creature that left her for dead. Combining their telepathic powers, the two then set out to locate the green Martian, whose location should not be a surprise to many of you: the heart of the Star City forest.
This issue was great. While it did completely leave out Aquaman and Firestorm, it does a great job developing the story for the characters that were depicted. Admittedly, Martian Manhunter and the two Hawks have been my least favorite aspect to the story, however this issue does a great job of developing each of their stories to a point that ties together some elements while bringing in some new and exciting ones. It is probably the must read Brightest Day issue for Hawkman, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter fans. 4/5
Arnab Pradhan
arnab@comicattack.net
Nice reviews. I like the cover to Batman Beyond. Brightest Day doesn’t sound even half as interesting as Blackest Night.
Brightest Day is a much calmer story and I had to realize that maybe not compare it to Blackest Night so much. They are going in two totally different directions but I will say that at some points BD is too slow but it has been picking up the last couple of issues.
The ending to Streets of Gotham will piss me off if it’s just a “fake out.” This issue of Batman Beyond hooked me on the series. Good stuff!
@Billy- I think what it is, is that Brightest Day is a much longer series. So where Blackest Night had a major reveal at every turn, Brightest Day has had to pace things out. Plus, with Blackest Night all the tie-ins were not particularly necessary. Whereas with Brightest Day, half the cast that have returned from the dead aren’t even in the series, at least not yet.
@Andy- Batman Beyond was great this week. And am I correct in saying that Dick has never appeared in anything Batman Beyond related?
Oh and “Word” to the Streets of Gotham bit.
I too haven’t been into the Hawkman/Hawkgirl and the Martian Manhunter parts of Brightest Day but I actually liked this issue. Brightest Day is slowing gaining points from me.